All that Matters
by Bone Structure
Summary: A lonely Maura goes to her first real college party in attempt to make friends and wakes up in a stranger's home. The two quickly become friends as they try to figure out school, their families, and themselves. Rizzles. College / Coming of Age AU.
1. Chapter 1

My first R&I fic, hoping I can do these characters justice. I'm currently watching season four and it frustrates me how underdeveloped Jane and Maura are. I think these two amazing characters deserve a lot more than the writers give them.

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**All That Matters**

Chapter 1

by Bone Structure

Maura didn't think it was at all weird when she felt the sun wake her – even though her bed didn't face a window. She didn't seem to notice that her sheets weren't the same color they had been yesterday. Or even that the poster next to her was totally foreign.

What she did notice was the alarm clock – well, the lack of one. When she peaked her head out of the sheets to look at her alarm clock, it wasn't there. She sat up in the bed to look around and made sure it hadn't fallen in the course of the night.

That's when she realized she wasn't in her room.

Quickly, Maura glanced around the room for clues. Perhaps it was someone she knew. The poster right next to her was drawing of stylized red socks on a blue background, which Maura assumed could only be the logo of Boston's prized baseball team. But did she know any Red Sox fans?

It only took a minute to realize that nothing in the room was familiar to her, so Maura deduced that it was likely the room belonged to a stranger. She sighed to herself, trying to recall the night before, but it was mostly a blur.

Maura decided that she wasn't going to get any new information while staying put so she got out of the bed. Upon pulling off the sheets she saw that she wasn't wearing last night's outfit anymore. Somehow she had changed into a pair of gray sweatpants, that donned the Boston Community College logo, and a Boston Police Department t-shirt. Maura secretly hoped that the Police Department t-shirt was a sign of someone with good values.

It was that thought that set Maura off on a panic. She was wearing someone else's clothes. She was in someone else's room. All she could remember about the night before was that she had gone to a party with her friend, Susie, and now she was here. She remembered how desperate she had felt to fit in last night, and how she reluctantly drank a third and a fourth beer. How far did her desperation take her?

Maura started to cry as she sat back down on the strange bed. She took the sheets in her hands and wished she were in bed, touching her own satin sheets.

"Hey, are you up-" the raspy, foreign voice came through the doorway in a half whisper as the door opened.

"Oh shit, you're crying!"

Maura barely stopped crying enough to open her eyes. The stranger had knelt down in front of her, putting her hands on Maura's knees.

"I know you're worried, but nothing happened last night, I swear."

Maura's crying slowly came to a stop. She took in a few shallow breaths as she looked down at the girl kneeling before her. She had wild, curly hair that was thick and black. Her cheekbones were sharp and incredibly well defined, just like her jaw. It was the look of worry on her face that let Maura feel like she could calm down.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Jane, I was at the party with you last night."

"Did we...," Maura took a pause and looked at Jane straight in the eyes, "Did we engage in coitus last night?"

Jane couldn't have taken her hands off of Maura's knees faster. "Coitus? What, like sex?! No!" Somehow Jane had gotten off her knees and was standing back up again, taking a few steps back from Maura. "I don't do that."

"You don't have sex?" Maura was confused by Jane's reaction. Maybe Jane was religious? She knew that some religious students on campus looked down at those who chose to engage in more liberal activities.

"Yea, I do! I do have sex."

"Then what is 'that?'" Maura added air-quotation marks. "That was not a very clear usage of a relative pronoun."

If Jane's eyes could have rolled out of her head, they would have. "Relative pronouns? Is that really what you wanna talk about right now? And forget what 'that' is, the point is, we did not have sex last night!"

"Can you explain how I got into these clothes then? I presume they are yours."

Jane ran her fingers through her hair, pushing the curls back out of her face. She let a pause go by, looking at Maura as she sat on her bed.

"Look, I'm starvin' and I'm gonna make some breakfast. We can talk about this over some bacon."

Maura didn't say anything but followed Jane as she walked out of the room. Following behind the girl, Maura saw that Jane was wearing a pair of red plaid boxers and a white t-shirt. The boxers looked short on Jane's legs, which only made Maura realize how tall Jane must have been. Maura wasn't short by any means, she knew that at 5'7" she stood two inches taller than the average Caucasian female in Amercica, but Jane seemed to have an extra two or three inches on her.

"You are much taller than average," Maura blurted out.

Jane was half bent over the fridge when she replied, "Oh really, and here I thought I was short."

"Really? How tall are you? You know the average height for females in America is about five feet and four inches. And the average for Caucasian females is five foot five. You seem to me to be about five foot nine. That certainly puts you above average."

"Um, I was being sarcastic?" Jane pulled out some eggs out of the fridge as she looked over at Maura, who had sat herself behind the kitchen's island.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not very good at detecting sarcasm."

"Robot, eh?" Jane opened her cabinet to look for the frying pan.

"I don't think so. Nothing up to now seems to indicate that I'm anything but human."

Jane's face was first frozen as she looked over at Maura, trying to decipher if the girl was just telling a bad joke or genuinely considering if she was a robot or not. Unable to tell, she let the topic go.

"Do you want some eggs?"

"That sounds lovely."

Maura watched in silence as Jane cracked the eggs over a bowl and began to whisk them with a fork. She added some salt and pepper before moving over to the pan.

"Is that how you take your eggs?"

Jane looked back at Maura, her eyebrows knotted in confusion. "Um, yes? What else should I do?"

"I noticed that you had some onions in the fridge," Maura said as she walked around the island and opened the fridge. "This fridge is pretty bare, when was the last time you went shopping?"

"Hey! I'm offering you breakfast here, I don't need criticism about my groceries or how I cook my eggs!"

"Did I offend you? I'm sorry."

Maura's frown was so sad and pitiful, Jane couldn't stand to look at it for long. Jane groaned a bit as she gave in.

"If you want that onion, chop it up. Knives are in the drawer next to fridge."

Maura chopped as Jane started the prepare the bacon. Maura couldn't help herself as she opened all the cabinets looking for spices. Jane watched the blond move herself around the kitchen with confidence, not ashamed to make herself comfortable.

"Don't you have a massive hangover?" Jane asked as she started to pour Maura's eggs into the frying pan.

"Oh, I do have a bit of a headache, but I made sure to drink plenty of water last night. I'm sure that if I hadn't, I would feel much worse right now."

"Wow," was all Jane said as she watched the eggs turn golden.

When everything was cooked, Jane split the meal evenly into two plates.

"Thank you for giving me breakfast," said Maura as she took a bit of egg to her lips.

"Breakfast? This is nothing," Jane grinned, "You should be thanking me for last night."

"Perhaps I would be if I could remember what happened. Would you remind me?"

"You were totally shitfaced." Jane noticed that the term made Maura cringe, "You had way too many beers last night. Anyway, your friend, the asian one, I think her name was Susan-"

"Susie," corrected Maura.

"Ya, Susie, she left with some guy around midnight and promised she'd come for you. It was 3am before I realized she probably wasn't coming back. You were way too drunk to go home by yourself, and one of the guys at the party was getting a little too close to you. So I brought you here."

"Who?"

"That guy Ian. He was trying real hard to get you to come home with him. I didn't let him take you."

Maura felt shivers run up her spine. Ian was in her Quantum Chemistry class. He had often bothered her about going out together, in a romantic sense. And though she thought he was a great study partner, that's where their relationship ended.

The two ate in silence as Maura began to contemplate Jane's motives. Never had a stranger been so kind to her. Hell, her own friend abandoned her at a party. Did Jane want something from her? Money? It seemed unlikely. Jane didn't know her well enough to know that Maura was from a wealthy family. Sex? Also unlikely, she probably had many opportunities the night before to make a move and she hadn't. That was all Maura could think of. Usually, people didn't reach out to her unless they wanted her money or her sex and Maura had become accustomed to thinking of her relationships in that light.

"I don't know how to repay you," Maura said blankly, putting her fork down.

"Mmmm, maybe a million bucks," Jane smiled before picking up her orange juice.

So this was about money?

"That seems rather outlandish."

"That's why it's a joke. Unless you do have a million bucks somewhere and then it's not."

Maura laughed, amused by Jane's sense of humor and the semi-confused look on the taller girl's face, but mostly happy that Jane didn't want any money from her. As her laughter subsided, Maura took her hand and placed it over Jane's.

"But honestly, thank you so much." Maura's smile was large and infectious. Jane's face couldn't help but light up in response.

"I was just doing what's right. But get me a six pack and we'll call it even."


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, thanks for all the review and follows! The reviews really motivate me to keep writing. I have a general idea of how this fic is going to go but a lot of the details are fuzzy. If you have any ideas or prompts you'd like to shoot at me, don't be afriad!

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**All That Matters**

Chapter 2

by Bone Structure

Jane had long lost count of many pushups she'd done. Her arms were turning into jell-o and her chest was on fire. Every time she went down, she was afraid that she'd fail on the next rep, but she had to keep going. Down and.. up. Down and... up. Down and...

"Stop!"

Her first instinct was to collapse on the ground, but she had made that mistake once and she wasn't going to repeat it. She finished her push up and sprang up from the ground. She stood in formation until the next command was called.

"A thousand meters, go!"

Jane was the first one to respond as she got out on the track and started to sprint. She knew a thousand meters was more than half a mile, which was way too long a distance to sprint, but she had to be fast. She knew she was a head of the pack by a couple meters and she wasn't going to lose her lead.

The work out continued for another half hour, alternating between pushups, running, sit ups and whatever else the officers thought would break them. But Jane refused to be broken. She was on top of her game.

As Jane showered she mentally counted how many weeks of police academy she had left. Nine more weeks and she could be an officer. She didn't worry about not passing her qualifications. She was studying and working out harder than ever. It was all going to pay off, she told herself. Nine weeks and then she would be on a salary, making real money, and everything would change.

By the time Jane it made it to her dad's apartment, it was only 4pm.

"Dad?" Jane called as she entered the house.

"I'm in the kitchen," Frank Rizzoli called back.

As usual, her dad was under the sink. Jane could hear the clinking of his wrench against the pipes, a sound she remembered fondly from childhood. But this wasn't her childhood home. He had moved into this apartment a month ago and it was nothing short of a dump. The plumbing was bad, the paint was old, and all the furnishings were strangely stained. It was obvious to Jane, and everyone else, that he didn't have enough time or money, to look for a new place once Angela had kicked him out.

"Come out of there, I'm only here for a couple hours. I'm hungry as a horse, let's order in."

"There should be some bread in the fridge, make yourself a sandwich." Frank crawled out from under the kitchen sink. His face was covered in black grease.

"Wipe yourself off," Jane threw a towel at the man before picking up some Chinese food menus on the counter. "And I want Chinese. I'll pay."

Jane wished that she hadn't expected the look of shame on her dad's face as she offered to pay for their dinner.

"Thanks Jane," Frank Rizzoli had never seemed so small. His shirt was torn at the bottom and his hands were dirty from work. Jane remembered when she was young and how that same image had made her look up to him. He was such a hard worker, a man who took pride in his job. But now, in this dingy apartment with broken pipes, he seemed pitiful. Jane knew that if she had checked the fridge, she would have found moldy bread and maybe some condiments he had snatched from a fast food place.

"Dad, how much is this divorce costing you?" Jane propped herself up against the kitchen counter, looking down at her dad as he sat on the floor.

"Ask your _mother_, she's the one divorcing me." His voice was bitter. "And she doesn't even work, this is all on my dime. Yet, she gets to keep the house somehow! I worked for twenty years to finish buying that house."

"Why can't you guys work this out? Like adults."

"Ask her, that she-devil."

It wasn't the first time Jane had asked. She wasn't surprised when he refused to answer, again. Although the Rizzoli's were all big gossipers, when it came to their own matters, no one said a word. It had been almost a year since her parents were separated and now they were two months in the divorce process, but Jane still had no idea what had caused her parents' split.

Why wouldn't they tell her? She was grown enough. She was just about to turn 21 and in her last semester of junior college. In less than three months she was going to be graduated twice over, both from Boston Community College and the police academy. She had already moved of her parent's house and soon she would working a salary job with full health benefits. It seemed ridiculous that her parents were falling apart just as her life was starting to fall together.

Her dad avoided conversation after that. They ordered their Chinese and turned on the Bruins game. Between the curses and the cheers, there was silence. Jane wished they could just turn off the TV and talk but she knew her dad preferred to deal with his struggles on his own - which meant he didn't deal with them at all.

After the game Jane said her goodbyes, taking her dad's trash out in her hands. She knew he wouldn't take it out on his own later on. As she put the trash bag in the collector, she looked up at the sky. It was already dark and getting chilly. Zipping up her coat, she started to walk to the bus stop.

She didn't know why but as she sat at the bus stop, she started to think about Maura. They had exchanged numbers after Maura promised to bring over a six pack sometime soon. That had been on Sunday and now it was Friday. Jane wondered if Maura would actually text her or if they were simply making conversation to make the whole situation less awkward.

It made her feel weak to admit, but Jane hoped that Maura would text. She had no plans this weekend other than spending a couple hours at the gym. Her buddy Frost was out of town visiting his girlfriend who went to some fancy smancy arts school in Manhattan. He was usually the one who got her out of bed Friday and Saturday nights to go out. He was the reason she had gone to that party last weekend.

Jane toyed with the idea of texting Maura herself. She wondered if Maura had plans tonight. Maura didn't seem like the kind of person who liked to party much. In fact she seemed like a huge nerd. Was Maura at the library tonight? Or was she at her dorm? Maybe Jane was completely wrong and Maura was a party monster after all.

The bus came and Jane pulled some change from her pocket. She paid the toll in quarters and sat down. As the bus pulled away from the curb she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the window, falling asleep while fingering the buttons on her phone in her pocket.

If Jane had known that Maura was sitting in her dorm completely alone, also starring at her phone, she would have texted.

Maura was at her desk, one of her many Biology textbooks sitting wide open. It was exactly 6:55pm and she was expecting a call from her mother at 7pm. It had been a couple weeks since she had last gotten the chance to talk to Constance, who was currently in Paris working on a new art exhibit.

Maura tried to focus on her textbook but it felt impossible with how excited she was. Just a few more minutes and she could finally talk to her mom. She resolved to close her textbook until after Constance called. She went to kitchen and got a class of water, keeping her phone in her hand the whole time.

7pm came and the phone didn't ring. Maura felt ridiculous, expecting it to ring just as the clock hit 7pm. She knew when people said 7pm they could have meant 7:02pm or 7:10pm or even 7:15pm. She opened her textbook again, maybe she should read after all.

After a couple paragraphs, Maura picked up her phone again. Nothing. It was now 7:07pm. What if Constance had called and somehow the phone didn't ring? She had a full five bars of reception, so that was unlikely. Still, she started going through her missed calls. Maura didn't use her phone often. She realized she hadn't spoken on the phone since last Sunday because the first number on her missed calls list was Jane's, from when Jane had called her and hung up in order to give Maura her number.

Maura was good at many things but reading social cues was not one of them. Jane had made her promise that she would bring her a six-pack but Maura wasn't sure how to go about it. It's not that she didn't want to see Jane again. Maura was ready for some change in her life. She was a Junior at BCU and she still hadn't found a group of friends she was comfortable with. She had lots of study partners and great roommates but she didn't have anyone she could talk to when she was bored or, and it made her sad to think, when she was lonely.

What kind of beer would Jane like anyway? She tried to remember if she saw any in Jane's fridge but she couldn't recall. Should she text Jane and ask? The more she thought about it, the more she felt like she should text Jane. But it was almost 7:30pm and Jane was probably going out for the night.

By 8pm, Maura had given up on Constance. Her own mother had forgotten about her. Normally, she would feel sad but tonight she just felt angry. This was going to be the last time she stayed waiting by the phone for her mom to call. She deserved better than that. She wasn't going to sit around anymore. She was sick and tired of feeling so lonely and so desperate.

Tomorrow, she would text Jane.


	3. Chapter 3

Alright, so this chapter is a little short. Someone asked that I write longer chapters and I completely agree that I should. I just couldn't do it this week. I've been having relationship issues and it's hard to write a story about love when you feel so down on it. For this reason, this chapter might also have some typos that slipped my eye while rereading... Anyway, for my next chapters, my goal is at least two-thousand words. This is 200-300 words longer than previous chapters, which doesn't sound like much but I'm hoping I can drive myself to keep digging deeper into these characters.

As always your reviews are fabulous and continue to fuel me, especially now when life is rough. Again, if you have any prompts/wild rizzle fantasies that you'd like to see me play out, don't be afraid to make suggestions.

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**All That Matters**

Chapter 3

by Bone Structure

Jane was mid-run when she saw the pineapples in the window display. They looked so good and Jane couldn't remember the last time she had a pineapple - a real pineapple and not just the sugary pineapple juice mix they used to make piña coladas. That's what made her go inside. Screw that last mile, she had just run five others and she was hungry.

Walking down the supermarket isles, Jane started to crave food. Not the microwavable stuff she usually bought or the random bits of snacks she would try to piece together into a meal. She wanted a home cooked meal that was well-thought out. She thought of the large pasta dinners she would have when she lived her parents. She could almost smell the cannoli that she used to make on Sunday nights.

Between the pineapple, packaged ramen, cut colds, and the boxes of spaghetti in her bag, Jane wished she had learn how to cook when she had the chance. Not that she would ever admit it to her mother. If she ever admitted it, she knew Angela would have been over at her door in less than hour with a giant bag full of groceries... Well, maybe that did sound nice after all.

Jane was busy looking through the section of premade pasta sauces when she looked up. Or rather, she looked down. It was the weirdest pair of shoes Jane had ever seen. Ten distant toes were looking right up at her, as if someone had molded plastic around their foot. Jane couldn't help but be confused and trailed her eyes up the person's body, wanting to see the face of whoever would wear such a hideous thing.

"Maura?"

The blond woman put the tomato sauce jar she was holding back on the shelf. As she made eye contact with Jane, she smiled.

"Jane? What are you doing here?"

"Getting food," Jane held up her basket so that Maura could see it. She had a smug little smile that said, what else could I be doing here?

"Oh, I knew that," Maura's face scrunched up, "I'm just a little surprised!"

"Weird coincidence," Jane shrugged but also smiled, "But what's weirder is your shoes."

"My shoes are not weird!"

"You look like you have webbed feet."

"Research suggests that running barefoot is much healthier for your feet then using standard running shoes. It helps you maintain a forefoot strike, which significantly alleviates the force on your knees and may even prevent heel spurs."

"How do you know that?"

"It was published in a scientific journal, Nature to be exact. The study was conducted by Harvard's Skeletal Biology Lab.

Jane couldn't pinpoint why but listening to Maura made her smile. Maura was just as nerdy as she thought. She couldn't help but imagine Maura getting cozy in bed at night with a textbook in her hands.

It didn't make any sense, but the image calmed her.

"You may be the only person under 30 reading scientific journals."

"Are you teasing me?" Jane noticed that Maura's face fell. "You're smiling but your tone of voice says something different."

"I am," Jane smiled but Maura's frown just got deeper. Maura broke eye contact to pick up the tomato sauce she had put down earlier. As her eyes started scanning the label, Jane suddenly felt bad. Maura clearly didn't pick up on Jane's undertones.

"I only tease people I like," Jane added, rushing to save the conversation.

"You like me?" Maura looked back up, her previous frown replaced by a small smile.

"I do..." Jane could feel the smile on her face start to grow. Maura probably thought she looked like an idiot with how huge the grin on her face was. "I mean, I did want to hang out again."

For the first time in Maura's life, someone wanted to "hang out" with her. Not study or not even make out, but hang out. She felt her heart start to race. This was exactly what she wanted and now she had no idea what to do now that the moment had come. What should she say now?

"Can we hang out again, if it's okay with you?" Jane asked, timidly, interrupting Maura's internal panic. Maura seemed to be frozen and Jane wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.

"Oh, yes! We can. Actually, this would be a great time to ask..." Maura started to pull on her shopping cart, which was behind her, so that Jane could look inside it. Jane's eyes widened as she saw the contents. Between all of her fruits and vegetables, Maura had four different cases of beer in her cart.

"Is there a particular brand of beer you like?"

"Is this all for me?"

"Well, I wasn't sure what kind you liked. So I was planning on getting all of these... I may have over prepared."

Suddenly, Maura's heart wasn't the only one that was racing. Jane swore her heart was pounding so hard that Maura could see it through her chest. When had a stranger ever done so anything so nice for

her? Actually, when had her own damn friends done something so kind?

Maura was surprised when she felt Jane's arms clasp around her. Shocked by the unprovoked gesture of affection, it took a couple seconds to process the fact that she was being hugged. But as soon as she realized it was happening, Jane's arms had retreated and fallen back to her sides.

"Are-are you pleased?" Maura could barely get the words out of her mouth.

"I am! I didn't expect you to do this."

"It's not too much?"

"Maybe a little... but in a very good way." Jane put her hands in Maura's cart to pick up one the six packs in her hands. "This is my favorite, for the record." Jane rotated the package so that Maura could see the label.

Maura grinned as she took in the sight of Jane smiling with a six pack in her hands. She looked like a kid in a candy store. Maura choose not to think about how pathetic it was that this very moment was the social highlight of her year. This was probably one of the longest conversations she had maintained recently that didn't end up in a discussion about biochemistry. And the way Jane's lips curled up into a smile (a smile directed at her!) made her feel happy.

"What are you doing for dinner?" Maura blurted out before she could stop herself. She prayed that she wasn't being too forward.

The brunette shrugged, "No idea. I came here because I wanted a pineapple. Now I'm really hungry and I'm probably going to get something frozen and -."

"Come over!"

"Really?"

"I'm cooking."

"What time?"

"Six? I should be done cooking by then."

"Let me help!" Jane hoped she wasn't being overbearing... "If you want help, that is."

"I would love help."

"Let me give you my address," Maura pulled her phone out of her pocket. She pulled up Jane on her contacts list and started typing in her address.

Jane felt her own phone vibrate in her pocket. She took it out and smiled when Maura's name appeared on the screen. She quickly opened up the message and skimmed the address. It didn't look familiar to her at all. Jane had never been anywhere near this address. She was tempted to ask about it, but decided against it. She would just look it up online when she got home, anyway.

When they parted ways, after picking up a couple more things and paying for their groceries, Maura had a smile on her face. Maura had spent all morning trying to figure out what to text Jane after her previous night's resolution to never be lonely again. Sometime after she had drafted the 10th version of her text, she decided that she should wait a couple hours before sending it.

It frustrated Maura that such a simple social interaction was giving her immense social anxiety. She kept thinking Jane would misread her tone - would she come off as too needy or too eager? That was exactly how she felt but she didn't want Jane to know that.

It was a blessing to have actually run into Jane without having to text her. It was surprisingly less anxiety-inducing. She just said whatever came to her head without having the chance to obsess over the phrasing of her words or compulsively check for misspellings. How lucky of her to have run into Jane, in random supermarket that wasn't near either of their homes. Maura didn't believe in fate, but she couldn't deny that it felt fated they meet there.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm back! It's been a little over three weeks so I'm sorry for the delay. Finals and a break up have been getting in the way of writing time. Finals aren't over yet but will be very soon. Then I get to spend all of break churning out this story. As promised, this chapter is longer. I was aiming for 2,000 and managed to hit 2,400ish. Chapters may start to get longer as I'll have more time to flesh these characters out for you.

Some logistics I have to address before we can move on. Someone asked how these two were able to get beer. Maura is 21, Jane is 20. Maura is a Junior at BCU, which is usually around the time people turn 21.

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**All That Matters**

Chapter 4

by Bone Structure

Maura Isles would have been lying if she said she wasn't nervous. After getting home from the supermarket, she immediately started looking through her recipe books. It had been a while since she had opened them. They were handwritten pages bound together by various makeshift means. They were souvenirs she had from her childhood nanny and she feared using them too often lest they begin to fall apart. It also helped that she had a large selection of the recipes memorized, so she rarely felt the need to consult them.

But it was a special day and Maura decided she would try one of the recipes she was less familiar with.

That way it would be more fun when Jane arrived to cook with her. It was something they could figure out together.

Maura had just decided on a recipe for spaghetti alla puttanesca when she heard the doorbell ring. Putting the recipe book down carefully on the book stand, she went to the open the door.

"Hello," Maura greeted happily as she pulled the door open, revealing Jane standing outside.

"Wow," was the first thing Jane said. " I suddenly feel underdressed."

Maura smiled, not sure what to say. She was wearing a black pencil skirt and loose pink button down shirt, a combination that was a bit of a staple in her wardrobe. She had spent some time earlier deciding what to wear. If Constance had taught her one thing, it was that appearances meant more than people cared to admit. Good impressions were everything.

"You look just fine," Maura finally replied as she walked into her home. Maura may have been taught to always dress well, but that didn't mean she judged others for their choices. Plus, Jane did look good. Jane was wearing a pair of jeans that fit snuggly across her hips and Boston Red Sox hoodie that reminded Maura of the poster Jane had in her room. Perhaps on someone else she wouldn't have found the outfit as attractive, but Jane pulled it off with a swagger that was charming. It was just who she was and she was comfortable in her clothes.

Jane didn't immediately follow Maura into the kitchen. She took a minute to take off her sneakers and leave them in the corner. When she looked up, that's when she started to notice the house she was in.

It was huge. Maura must have been loaded to live in a place like this. This definitely wasn't student housing. It certainly wasn't anywhere near student housing either. The BCU campus was a couple miles way.

"You live in a _mansion_," Jane said as she walked into the kitchen.

"Well, it is rather large, but not quite mansion sized. It's my parents, of course." Maura began to pull the ingredients out of the fridge, laying them out in front of Jane.

"Oh, you live with your parents? I thought you would have lived on campus." Jane idly began to play with some garlic cloves that Maura had set out, peeling off their papery skin as she spoke. "Though I guess I wouldn't want to live on campus if I could live here."

"I do live on campus, actually." Maura pulled two knives out from the counter, handing one over to Jane. "But I like to come here some weekends. And the kitchen here is much bigger, so I figured it would be better for us to cook."

"Are your parents home?"

"Can you chop up that garlic? Just three cloves," Maura herself began to chop up parsley. "And no, my parents are usually in Europe."

"And they still keep this huge house here?"

"Yea, I think I'm supposed to inherit it after graduation. If I want to stay in Boston, that is."

"Wow," was all Jane could say as she finished chopping up the garlic into tiny cubes. "What are we making tonight?"

"Spaghetti alla puttanesca."

"Mmmm, fuck yes, Italian!"

"You like Italian?"

"I _am_ Italian," Jane said with a grin that made Maura laugh. "Where did you get your recipe?"

She asked as she looked over at the recipe book on the book stand. "Did you write this?" She flipped to the next page and a saw a recipe for apple pie.

"Oh, no, I wish! An old nanny of mine wrote those recipes."

Jane heard a small pang of sadness in Maura's voice. She had a nanny and her parents were off in Europe? Jane was starting to see a bit of a pattern of Maura's parents not being present. Maybe she was wrong and reading too much into the details. She barely knew Maura after all.

"Were you close?"

"Emily, that was her name. We were very close. My parents were busy more often than not, so in a way, she sort of raised me."

So Jane was right about Maura's parents after all.

"Do you still talk?"

"She passed away." Maura looked down at the chopping board in front of her. Suddenly not sure what to do with herself. She couldn't remember the last time someone had asked her about Emily.

Maura felt Jane's arms wrap around her from behind in a gentle hug. If she had seen Jane approach, she would have waived off the affection. Whenever she was truly upset, affection only seemed to make her feel worse. Though now she was glad she hadn't seen Jane coming. In Jane's arms, she felt... strangely okay.

"I was ten when she died, so it's been a while. I still miss her sometimes."

"It makes sense. It sounds like she was a big part of your childhood."

"She was."

Feeling raw, Maura shifted her focus to back to cooking. Jane followed Maura's instructions, keeping Maura's back story in her mind. From the outside, Maura seemed perfect. She was a BCU kid with a nice looking bank account, a huge house that was practically all hers. She seemed smart as hell too. But beyond all that, she seemed lonely. What was all that worth without any family or friends to share it with?

"Let me get the serving plates," said Maura when they were finally done.

"I'm so hungry I'm ready to eat this right out the pot." While Maura was distracted Jane put her fork in the pot and wrapped some spaghetti around it. When Maura turned out, Jane had a mouth full of pasta and sauce on her lip.

"Jane!"

"Mmmm?" Jane said while chewing. She swallowed with a small gulp and smiled guiltily. "I said I was ready to eat it out of the pot. I wasn't lying." Maura sighed and rolled her eyes but Jane could still see a smile on the girl's face.

"Well, I hope you can wait two more minutes now. Let me serve it." Maura motioned for Jane to move away from the pot before she doled out two hefty servings for them.

"Thanks!" Jane took a plate from Maura's hand and began walking out of the kitchen, toward the living room. Maura waited a minute for Jane to returned, expecting the two to eat at the kitchen table. She tried to hear if Jane was walking around but instead started hearing voices. Jane must have turned the TV on.

"Are you coming?" Jane called from the living room.

Maura's response was to pick up her plate and join Jane in the living room. She had never eaten in front of the TV before. Well, maybe she had once or twice when she was a kid, but her parents forbid it as she got older. Dinner time was time to eat. Eat and nothing else.

Maura sat down next to Jane on the couch. Jane had her feet up on the coffee table and was balancing the plate on her pelvis. Something about her positioning made her seem childish, but Maura liked it. She wished she could copy her, but it wouldn't be appropriate to have her legs up while wearing a skirt. Maura sat with her legs crossed instead, like she had always been taught to.

"What are you watching?" Maura asked.

"Call of the Wildman."

Maura had never heard of that show but was pleasantly surprised when she saw that the show was Animal Planet. It had been a couple years since she had watched Animal Planet but she did recall watching a documentary about Meerkats in the Kalahari Dessert on it once.

It took Maura a couple minutes to understand the premise of the show and understand that it really wasn't about animals. Or anything educational really.

"Wait, so he just goes around catching animals that get trapped in people's homes?"

"Yea. Do you want to watch something else?" Ugh, why didn't she ask earlier. Maura was probably too sophisticated for a show like this. A show about toothless rednecks catching wild animals. "I know it's kind of dumb, but it's entertaining."

Maura didn't say anything but kept her eyes on the screen. Normally, she would have asked to change the channel but she was intrigued. One of the show's stars was currently trying to get a rabid raccoon out of someone's basement. Barehanded.

"Why don't they use equipment?"

"They don't want to hurt the animals." Jane looked over at Maura who was now mesmerized by the show.

Maura watched in silence as she took another bite of pasta. Jane took special notice of the way Maura ate. She would swirl her fork just the right way, getting the spaghetti evenly wrapped around the utensil. She opened her mouth just enough to let the fork pass, no more. Maura ate like it was an art, delicately in small bites.

"How did you know about this show?" Maura asked between bites.

"I used to watch it with my dad and my brothers. When I lived back home, that is."

"You have brothers?"

"Two," said Jane, her mouth full of spaghetti.

"It shows." Maura raised her eyebrows with a satisfied grin plastered over her face.

"What does that mean!?" Though Jane knew exactly what Maura meant as she loosely wrapped some spaghetti around her fork. She pulled the fork back and angled it toward Maura, as if she was going to shoot it at her. "Do you think I'm boyish?"

"Don't you dare!"

"Dare do what?"

Jane closed one eye and brought the fork up higher, pretending she was a sniper. She wasn't really planning on shooting it. She wasn't planning on Maura trying to reach over and snatch the fork from her either. But that's exactly what Maura did. Well, she tried to.

Maura extended her hand, praying that Jane wouldn't launch it at her before she could get the fork out of the other woman's grasp. She failed. As Maura tried to pull the fork out of Jane's hand, neither of them could maintain a good grip on it. Maura thought Jane had it as she let it go and suddenly the fork was falling out of both their hands. Onto Jane's jeans. Directly on her crotch.

"Shit!" was the first thing out of Jane's mouth as she tried to pick the spaghetti strands.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry!" Maura pulled out her napkin, "Let me help." Not thinking much about it, Maura went straight toward Jane's now pasta sauce covered crotch.

"Hey, wait until the second date at least!" Jane cried out, shooing Maura's hand away.

Jane was just joking, of course, but how could Maura know that? Socially awkward, bad at picking up cues Maura.

"Second date?" Maura started to freak out. Was this a date? Shit, should she have dressed better? Maybe they should have gone out to dinner instead of coming over to Maura's place. Did she ask Jane out on a date without realizing it?

"It's a joke." Jane didn't know why but she started to blush. She felt her face become hot and suddenly felt stupid. She tried to look away for a second and that only made her feel more uncomfortable. But it didn't help when she looked over at Maura again, who was also blushing.

"Oh, okay." Maura suddenly put her plate down on the coffee table and stood up. Whatever she was feeling now - embarrassment? shyness? - felt awful and she didn't want Jane to look at her until the feeling passed. "I'm going to get you a wet cloth so you can get some of the sauce out. I doubt it will stain but we should try to get it out now anyway."

The blond woman walked away and into the kitchen, leaving Jane alone. Her blush was gone but she was no less confused. Did Maura think they were on a date? It didn't seem. It took a couple seconds before Jane could calm down enough to process that Maura just wasn't used to her sense of humor. Maura wasn't used to being teased, at least not in Jane's special loving way, and she wasn't used to sarcasm.

Jane looked at the clock and decided that if Maura wasn't back within a minute, she would go look for her. True to herself, Jane was too impatient to wait the whole minute through. She sighed to herself, telling herself just to be normal and not make the situation potentially more awkward. She would just pretend it never happened, whatever it was, and they could go on hanging out normally.

"Hey, can we open that six pack now?" Jane said as she casually strolled in the kitchen. Maura, who was wetting a small rag at the sink, turned around to meet Jane's gaze.

"It's your beer, after all. Open it if you'd like." Maura said in almost a shy voice.

"Where'd you put it?"

"I put your favorite one in the fridge when I got home. It should be cold by now."

Maura might as well have told Jane that she was personally opening up the gates of Heaven for her with the way Jane was smiling.

"You put it in the fridge?!" Jane pulled two beers out. "You're the best."

Jane passed one of the beers over to Maura. Usually, Maura didn't drink beer. Well, except for that one party, she reminded herself. She usually opted for a nice red wine. But Jane had already passed the beer over and Maura didn't want to say no. In her head the image of sharing a beer with Jane seemed kind of... nice.

Maura went to her drawer and pulled out a bottle opener. She passed it over to Jane who happily opened their bottles for them, her smile only growing as the caps popped off.

"Come on, let's go back to watch more bad TV."

Jane motioned her bottle in the direction of the living room and Maura nodded. As she followed Jane back to the couch, she completely forget about the wet cloth hanging over the sink.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello again! Thank you for all your reviews on the last chapter! I really read and appreciate every single one. In response to **Amyp22**: It's true that Jane and Maura's bond isn't very strong yet, but this chapter is a step in that direction. It's hard writing AU since I have to find a way to try to develop their bond naturally, without the pre-established relationship of the show. Hopefully, I can make it work. Now **Terri411**: I haven't actually said outright what Jane and Maura's sexualities are - or what they think they are ;) - because I don't think their relationship right now is enough for them to be really worried about it. Soon!

As always, please review if you like! This chapter was difficult to write and I'd like to know what you think about it.

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**All that Matters**

Chapter 5

by Bone Structure

It was the second time Maura had woken up in a compromising position that month. First, she had woken up in Jane's bed - without Jane in it. And now, Maura was curled up on her couch. This time with Jane.

Maura did remember when Jane had fallen asleep. It was the third time that month that Jane had come over for Saturday night dinner. The brunette was toward the end of her second beer when the buzz was starting to effect her. Throughout the night Maura noticed that Jane had gotten progressively more comfortable in her home, even more so than she had been the first night they hung out. Maura wondered if it was more because Jane was a bit tipsy or because they were just growing more friendly with time. Either way, Jane had barely gotten halfway through her third beer when she started to doze off during commercial breaks. Occasionally she would wake up to say something snarky or adjust her position on the couch, only to fall asleep again soon after. It wasn't until Jane's head had started to lean on her shoulder that Maura figured Jane wasn't going to wake up again soon.

Maura didn't remember how she had fallen asleep but it was too late to care about that now. She looked at the clock on her cable box and saw the numbers 5:43 lit up in bright green. It was still early and when Maura finally looked over at the TV, which must have stayed on all night, they were playing infomercials. She turned it off.

Not sure about the protocol of accidently falling asleep together, Maura opted not to wake Jane up right away. The sun wasn't even up yet and she knew from previous conversation that Jane was in no way a morning person.

Jane had somehow tipped over during the course of the night so she was successfully laying horizontal with her head on the arm rest, her legs curled up and her feet tucked under Maura's thighs. Maura had begun to lean over as well, she could tell by the soreness in her neck, but she managed to wake up while she was still sitting up.

As softly as she could, Maura stood up from the couch. As she stretched her arms above her head, she realized how stiff her body actually was. Her neck, shoulders, and lower back were all tight. No matter how comfortable her couch was, it wasn't conducive to a good night's sleep.

That definitely wasn't stopping Jane from trying though. Now that Maura was gone, Jane's legs reflexively stretched out to their full length. Maura smiled at the way Jane's toes wiggled in her socks when she moved. Thinking that she might be cold, Maura went to her linen closet to retrieve a blanket, unfolding it and laying it over Jane.

Hoping to get rid of the soreness in her lower back, Maura decided she would pass the morning doing yoga.

Usually yoga did wonders for clearing her mind. A couple of poses into her sun salutation Maura would let her body take over, allowing it to follow the sequence she had long since memorized. But today, she simply couldn't find the same tranquility. Thoughts that she had tried to push to the back of her mind keep surfacing, disturbing her ability to relax into the poses.

First thing that was stressing her out? Midterms. It was now almost end of February and she had all her midterms next week. She had been studying almost non-stop all semester. The only times she hadn't been studying were her daily breaks to head to the gym and her now weekly dinners with Jane. Practically every other minute she had, she was spending nose deep in a book. The stress was beginning to wear her down.

Besides school, Maura couldn't remember the last time she spoke to her mom. Although she promised herself that she wasn't going to wait around anymore for calls, she passively found herself doing just so. She didn't wait around her phone like she used to, but every time she checked her email, her missed calls, or even her letter mail, she secretly hoped that her mother was trying to contact her.

Maura knew that her father would never contact her; she could count on her fingers how many times she had spoken to him in the past year. Constance may be been a bit negligent in the past, but she always managed to show up eventually. It had never taken her this long though. Maybe something was wrong? Had Maura disappointed her? Or maybe Constance was ill?

Maura wanted to talk to her mom. But right now she was too full of pride to reach out first. She was tired of waiting, tired of being cast aside. Her mom was going to have to seek her out if she wanted to talk to her.

Downstairs a tired Jane was waking up, barely able to open her eyes. She looked over at the clock on the cable box and it was now 7:03 AM. It was way too early for her to be awake. She pulled the covers tighter around herself as she took a few moments to contemplate her surroundings.

She was still at Maura's. She had probably fallen asleep while they were watching TV. Maura wasn't in the living room so she must have left to go sleep in her room after Jane passed out. She wondered why Maura didn't wake her up to kick her out but was grateful that she didn't. Jane was exhausted. She had a long week at the police academy and she was ready to sleep the weekend away.

With no small amount of effort, Jane got up from the couch. She knew that Maura was an early riser and she might be up by now. But first, she wanted to go to the bathroom to rub some toothpaste on her teeth and hopefully get rid of her gross morning breath.

It was on her way to the bathroom that Jane heard something odd. The sound was soft, almost like a sigh.

"Maura?" Jane instinctively opened the door she thought the sound was behind. "Maura, are you crying?"

She was. Maura was kneeling down on her yoga mat with her face buried in her palms. What Jane had thought were sighs were Maura's sobs, muffled by her hands.

"Hey," Jane's voice softened as she sat down on the yoga mat next to Maura. Feeling the other girl's body next to her, Maura relaxed. They spent a few minutes like that, Maura continued to cry even as Jane wrapped her arms around her. Jane consciously decided to stay quiet and allow Maura to cry in her arms for as long as she needed.

Slowly, Maura's gentle sobs began to let up. When she felt that they had stopped completely, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She had never been so glad for waterproof mascara, she thought realizing she was still wearing yesterday's makeup.

"I'm sorry, I'm a huge mess."

Maura's puffy, red, and still watery eyes nearly broke Jane's heart.

"You don't have to apologize." Jane felt herself pulling Maura closer than she already was. She had one arm around Maura's waist and she laid her hand over the curve of Maura's hip. "You can cry if you want to. You are human."

"Even though you like to call me a robot?"

"Yes," Jane laughed, "I do know you're still human. A human with blood, with a heartbeat, and with feelings." Jane took the free hand that wasn't on Maura's side and touched Maura's chest lightly with her fingertips. "You're allowed to feel what's in there. And yes, I know the heart has no feelings. Don't take it literally."

Maura felt her heartbeat quicken at Jane's touch. Maura couldn't help but smile at the way Jane anticipated what she was going to say. She had guessed correctly at Maura's thoughts, something she was beginning to show a knack for. Maybe it was that connection that made it so easy for Maura to open up. Whatever the reason was, suddenly she found herself trying to explain the reason for her tears.

"I can't remember the last time I spoke to my mother," she started. "'At least, for more than a couple minutes. It might have been Christmas, the last time we spoke."

Jane knew that Maura's parents were neglectful to some extent, but she didn't realize how far it went. Christmas? That was almost two months ago. Did they really go two months without calling her? Didn't they think about her?

"Have you tried calling her?"

"I don't want to," Maura knew how ridiculous her pride must have sounded. "I want her to call me. I have spent too much time waiting around for her to show up. I don't want to beg her to talk to me."

A moment of silence passed and Maura could only feel embarrassed. Jane probably thought she was being childish but Maura had spent her entire life being casually ignored by her parents. Even when they managed to be in the same country as her, they were always busy with work. Maura probably hadn't spent a whole day with her parents since she was in elementary school, over a decade ago.

"Does she know you want to talk to her?" Jane asked quietly, interrupting Maura's thoughts.

"She's my mom. She should know that I want to talk to her. She should want to be here for me."

"Maybe she doesn't know how," Jane offered, "Have you ever asked her to call you more often?"

Maura fell silent. In her mind, she tried to recall if she had ever explicitly asked Constance for her attention. She couldn't think of a time when she had.

"I don't believe so."

"Maybe you should ask her." Jane was still holding onto Maura, so she could feel the taller woman move as she shrugged her shoulders.

"I want her to seek me out of her accord. Is that so wrong?" Maura asked, feeling ashamed of her feelings for what felt like the umpteenth time that morning.

"No, it's not," Jane offered. "It's just that... since my parents started working out their divorce, I've been talking to my mom a lot more. She won't tell me what happened really, but I get a feeling she and my dad didn't talk as much as they should have. I don't want you to be afraid to talk to your mom about this."

Absorbing Jane's words, Maura wasn't sure what to say. Rationally, she understood that Jane's advice was sound. Maura had never voiced her contempt. She had always been too occupied with trying to be the perfect daughter to say anything about how she actually felt. If it had been anyone else, Maura would have taken Jane's advice. But it wasn't anyone else, it was her mother. Weren't mothers naturally supposed to want to be involved in their children's lives? Why was her mother so lacking in maternal instinct?

"Do you want to come to my family dinner?" Jane's voice once again interrupted Maura's thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Rizzoli Sunday. It's a tradition my family has. We eat dinner together every Sunday. Even though my parents split, my mom likes to keep it going."

"Is everyone going to be there?" Maura's face lit up, a huge smile forming on her lips. "Your mother and both of your brothers?"

"You're only smiling now because you haven't met them yet." Looking at Maura's face made it impossible for Jane to hold back a smile of her own. If it was possible, her smile felt even wider than her face, like her cheeks were struggling to contain her happiness. All from just looking at Maura's smile. It felt good to make her happy.

"I would love to meet them. Thank you for inviting me."

Jane didn't respond but moved her arm away from Maura's waist - surprising Maura when she missed the affection. Jane stood up on her feet and stretched her arms above her head, arching her back.

"I feel like I slept on a rock. Everything is in knots."

"I felt the same. That's why I came up here to do some yoga. The benefits of a good yoga session are truly amazing. "

Normally Jane would have laughed at Maura and teased her about doing yoga, but she recognized that it wasn't what her friend - or her own body - needed right now.

"Teach me some moves, then. Untie all my knots."


End file.
